pinnace
a light sailing ship, especially one formerly used in attendance on a larger ship.
any of various kinds of ship's boats.
a small 17th-century ship having two or three masts and a flat stern, used in northern Europe as a warship and merchant ship and as a tender.
Origin of pinnace
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use pinnace in a sentence
Martin Frobisher was despatched with three pinnaces to discover a northwest passage, but compelled by the ice to return.
The Every Day Book of History and Chronology | Joel MunsellAt the same time, the four two-hundred-foot pinnaces that would be carried aboard were being finished.
Space Viking | Henry Beam PiperThe Enterprise carries four pinnaces, the same as the Nemesis; in his place, I'd have at least two of them on off-planet patrol.
Space Viking | Henry Beam Piper“Twelve men will remain behind to guard the pinnaces,” cried Drake.
Famous Privateersmen and Adventurers of the Sea | Charles H. L. JohnstonThe sea ran high and she did not wish to get too close and board, because it would be easier to send her men in pinnaces.
Famous Privateersmen and Adventurers of the Sea | Charles H. L. Johnston
British Dictionary definitions for pinnace
/ (ˈpɪnɪs) /
any of various kinds of ship's tender
Origin of pinnace
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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